Monday, March 22, 2010

On shock and tolerance...

Over the weekend, it looked as if that wasn’t going to happen…phones were worked, arms were twisted and the promise of an Executive Order banning federal funding of abortion health care services was made.

Protesters and Tea Bag Party people were gathered throughout D.C., where they got their protest on.

Some of those protesters hurled racial slurs and spit on Representative Emanuel Cleaver.

Representative John Lewis, a hero of the Civil Rights Movement, was called the n-word and assorted other slurs.

Representative Barney Frank, an out gay man, was called the f-word (to borrow from an anchor at CNN, it rhymes with “maggot”) and assorted other slurs.

And, as the House came together to debate, speechify and vote, Representative Bart Stupak was called a “baby killer”. (a bitch’s first note – Stupak’s group had opposed the health care reform bill until President Obama promised to sign that Executive Order banning federal funding of abortion health care services…and he’s the very definition of anti-choice…so, that shout down on the House floor was particularly bizarre)

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Before this bitch turns my attention to the Senate…and we mustn’t forget that the Senate is the next battlefield for this shit (a bitch’s second note – Tea Bag Party people will have to dig deep into their slur storage when protesting the Senate, ‘cause that ain’t exactly a sea of diversity)…I’d like to quickly address the rancidity prior to the vote in the House.

Cough.

A bitch is not surprised that shit got nasty as the health care reform bill came up for a vote nor am I surprised that assholes hurled those slurs.

I’m not shocked.

This behavior is product of the tolerance movement in America and regular readers know that a bitch isn’t a fan of the school of tolerance.

Tolerance is a shitty contract between the privileged and the oppressed.

The privileged agree to “tolerate” otherness and difference as long as the other doesn’t make demands upon them...like fighting for rights or equal treatment under law.

The other agrees to not challenge privilege in exchange for a false sense of security.

The health care reform debate and vote broke that contract…and beneath all that tolerance is a whole lot of ig’nance and hate, a kind of infection that hasn’t been treated because too many people have learned to tolerate the stench and pain.

19 comments:

Have you had a chance to read David Frum's analysis? He's a conservative blogger, but one of the saner ones.

http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

In particular I liked this bit:

"We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead.

It's only going to get worse, with the right-wing, woman-hating, self-centered assholes gearing up to challenge any reform in the courts and at the state level. The level of hate and selfishness on the right should be shocking but it's not.

I wasn't surprised by it in the least because that kind of behavior has always been there, it's always been just below the surface boiling away.

And, sadly, people have let themselves be ruled by this kind of fear and misinformation without understanding that the people whipping them up don't care about them either: at the end of the day, *they* all have health care and the foot soldiers don't.

I am but one of two Democrats at work. Today there was a bit of talk, at a meeting, about the evils of HCR, but it didn't go too far. The Republicans I was talking with are the type to seek out other news sources than just Fox -- and we all know we're not going to change the other person's mind.

Having said that, I *do* work with some people who, during the past year, have bought into every bit of misinformation spread by the people fighting against HCR -- some of it just absured.

It's not surprising but what makes it infuriating to me is how all the right-wing talking heads are on the news "denouncing" these statements as if they don't know exactly what brand of fear the teabagger and anti-choice movements have been feeding into the whole damn time. And of course, as always, none of the anchors are calling them on this bullshit.

If there is anything at all positive in this kind of rancid behavior, to borrow your accurate term, is that their very bigotry will be the undoing of them. There is a saying in Latin American that goes, give them enough rope, and they will hang themselves. It will get bad enough that they will start turning off even some of their most ardent supporters. It is sad to think that spirits are corralled inside such minds, isn't it?

The commenter above, Mohats, said, "The Tea Party is just the KKK without the hoods." Yep, and I'll add that without the benefits, too. Geez, these people are ignorant.

Anyway, Shark Fu, this post was spectacular in tying the concept of tolerance to it; reminds me of why I've hated every diversity seminar or training we had to go to and how not a damn thing changed afterwards.

What you said about how the concept of tolerance devolved, and how you worded it, was so succint, so needing to be told to as many as possible, that I used an excerpt on my post this evening, Modern Day Serfs, Stuck In The Land of Stuck, with a link back to you.

I am not a fan of "tolerance", but I AM a fan of "MYOB", AKA "Grow Up And Get A Life, Already". What is it with these fools' obsession with other people's S - E - X lives? Frankly, I find it exceedingly difficult to tolerate these teabaggers, but I do, as long as they keep their precious bodily fluids to themselves.

mohats, i agree completely with you. These folks though have disguised it in the form of look we are in this together and we are the ones being oppressed. at the end of the day they all have insurance and they are trying to keep it from others. To use the money for war. There is always money for war!

David Frum on how choosing shepherds like Palin and Beck has left these silly sheep sheared and naked.

http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

I haven't really followed the health bill, simply because I am Kenyan but I found that I knew more than some of those ridiculous teabaggers. Seriously getting the right information IS NOT THAT hard. They are not illiterate, they have internet and yet and yet they choose to listen to rhetoric without substance hating the person rather than knowing the content. Regardless what struck me most was your definition of tolerance. So true, or me it hit home for my country. The privileged are the politicians who use their position to milk the country dry with billion shilling scandals that prompted a presidential employee to tape ministers stalling investigations on corruption. Joke is always on us cause somehow the president reappoints them so that they can steal some more. Tolerance? Won't take it no more.

Anonymous...The slurs, both homophobic and racial, were hurled in the halls of Congress. Not by everyone, but by some...and if folks didn't want others to know that mess they wouldn't have done it in a crowd with media present.

I don't take the word of just anyone, but Rep. Lewis and Cleaver...um, I'll take their word over the mob any day, every time.